They returned to the waterfall to find several couples already slipping inside. With Cassius's steady hand guiding her, Roxanne stepped beneath the cascading warmth, the water rushing around her in soft, breathless waves.
Cassius slipped back onto the bank and melted into the shadows — just as a thunderous announcement cut through the air.
The Blood Moon King had arrived.
"By royal command" the announcer's voice rang out, sharp and absolute, silencing everything around it, " All persons are to vacate the falls immediately. With the sole exception of you, Roxanne."
A beat of dreadful silence.
"You are to remain. To bathe. And to personally escort His Majesty to these waters.
Hours later, Lover's Veil fell silent.
One by one, the couples had gone — until only Roxanne and Vangelis remained.
From within the water, Roxanne watched him undress at the bank, her eyes burning with a hatred she didn't bother to hide. Every muscle in her jaw was tight. Every breath, controlled.
Vangelis stepped in without hesitation.
The water barely rippled as he moved toward her slow, deliberate until almost nothing separated them. Just a whisper of warm, humid air between two people who were no longer what they used to be.
"I am your King," he said, his voice low and edged with authority. "You have no right to look at me with such resentment."
Roxanne said nothing. Her silence was its own answer.
"If you wish to destroy the friendship we have" his eyes darkened, "then know this. I will use my power I possess to save it. Whether you want me to or not."
But Roxanne remained silent.
Vangelis could feel the fury radiating from her eyes even as she said nothing. Searching for connection, he reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders then recoiled almost instantly. Her skin was ice. A biting, unnatural cold that had no place in warm water.
"What is wrong with you? Why are you so cold?"
Roxanne simply raised her hand and gestured that she was fine.
"Why won't you speak?" His brow furrowed, concern bleeding into frustration. "Can you not even mindlink me?"
Roxanne said nothing. Instead, she stepped out of the water, reached for a pen and paper nearby, and began to write.
[I am perfectly fine, Lord Vangelis. I suffered a small accident, but I will recover soon. As for our friendship, there is nothing left for me to say. It is better that we part ways and share no further relationship.]
Vangelis read it slowly. Then he looked up at her, something unreadable crossing his face.
"I have already sent word to your family," he said quietly, "requesting you as my Duchess. You have no say in this matter, Roxanne. Once you become my second wife, the decision is no longer yours."
He turned and walked away without another word.By midnight, a car rolled to a stop and Fiona emerged.
She wore a white linen gown that caught the moonlight like a second skin. The moment her feet touched the ground, every head bowed. She moved down the path with grace, with power, with a beauty that was simply impossible to deny.
When she reached Fruitful's Stream, the doors shut quietly behind her. The last of the attendants slipped away into the night, leaving only silence and the soft sound of flowing water.
The stream had been transformed. White petals blanketed every surface, scattered across the water and the banks like fallen stars, filling the air with something sacred and intimate.
Then Vangelis appeared.
He said nothing at first. He simply looked at her, a slow smile warming his face, before he stepped forward and lowered himself gently, pressing a soft kiss against her belly.
When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with emotion.
"Words cannot describe how much I have missed you. And you," he exhaled, eyes glistening as he looked up at her, "you gave me the most extraordinary gift of all. Our baby. Thank you, Sapphire . Truly. You have made me the happiest man alive."
She said nothing. She didn't need to.
Slowly, tenderly, he undressed her cloth by cloth. And together, they stepped into the stream.
"Are you ready for your bath?"
The middle-aged woman's voice was gentle but purposeful. Roxanne answered with a slow nod and stepped into the stream, the water receiving her in silence. Cassius settled on the bank beside the woman, watching with quiet unease.
"I will begin the ritual now," the woman said.
She closed her eyes and began her incantations, her lips moving in a low, steady murmur that seemed to hum beneath the surface of everything. Then, with careful hands, she scattered golden petals across the water.
The change came slowly at first.
A shimmer. A shift. Then the water bloomed into deep, molten gold, beautiful and terrifying all at once. Within moments it began to boil, churning and rising around Roxanne's body.
Roxanne's groans broke the silence. Low at first, then raw with agony, her body curling against the pain she could not escape.
Cassius moved forward but the woman raised a steady hand.
"The water boils for a reason," she said, her voice calm and unwavering. "The cold magic lodged in her throat, it is spreading now. Being distributed throughout her entire body. It is the only way to slow the death it carries and ease the concentration of pain." She paused, letting the weight of her words settle. "The magic will still affect her. That cannot be undone. But it will no longer be so violently focused in one place. She will show signs of weakness. She will tire easily." Her eyes met Cassius's with quiet urgency. "Keep her warm. Always."
Fiona lay against Vangelis's chest, the two of them wrapped in nothing but sheets, resting on the soft bed of the stream bank. The world outside felt far away.
"The first time I truly felt fear," Fiona said quietly, her fingers tracing slow circles against his skin, "was in Nymortix. I felt as though I would never be found. That I would simply drift further and further from everyone I loved, until death took me." She paused, her voice dropping to almost nothing. "Promise me. Promise me that nothing will ever separate us again."
Vangelis pressed his lips to the top of her head.
"Nothing will," he said. Then after a breath, "But I have a request. One I hope you will hear with an open heart."
Fiona tilted her head slightly. "I would like to hear it."
He was quiet for a moment, choosing his words carefully.
"While you were gone, I nearly lost myself. My sanity. My footing in everything." His voice was steady but heavy. "Roxanne was the one who held it all together. She stood beside me, managed the political affairs, and kept me from falling apart completely. I wanted to marry her to keep the treaty with Silver Moon That was the day you returned ." He exhaled slowly. "I intend to marry her."
Fiona went very still.
"Not out of love," he continued. "Not out of desire. I want to take her as my second wife, to hold the title of Duchess, and to honour the treaty she helped protect. That is all it would be. A reward. A debt repaid with dignity."
The silence between them stretched long and fragile.
Then Fiona slowly lifted her head and looked at him. Her eyes were wide, searching his face as though trying to find something she could hold onto.
"I do not even know what to say," she admitted at last. Her voice was soft but unreadable. "I will summon her tomorrow. I will speak with her myself and see whether she is truly worthy of such a position."
She lowered her head back onto his chest, but something in the room had shifted, quiet and irreversible.